1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to packages for marketing retail goods, and, more specifically, to a flexible package having a detachable decorative overlay portion which is made separable to allow the retailer to provide specialized marketing information which is removable from the body of the package so as to extend the full price marketing life of the particular packaged goods.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, when retailers provided goods, such as candy, toys, or treats such as baseball cards, in small packages bearing information of a special event or seasonal nature, for example, for Halloween, July Fourth, Christmas, and the like, such goods would ordinarily be substantially reduced in price once the specified holiday or other event was past, in order to "move" the merchandise. Thus, a need has existed for a type of package which could be adapted from a specialty nature to a more generic or everyday nature in order to extend the time for which the packaged items could be retailed at a higher price. The only package known to address this problem in any manner is a cellophane package used, for example, to market candy, such as that sold under the registered trademark of Atkinson Candy Company, ATKINSON'S. The Atkinson candy package is of the "form and seal" type which is simultaneously formed, filled with the product and sealed with a central longitudinal seal along the back of the package, and with two transverse end seals. As a separate step, the Atkinson package has added a narrow band bearing a repetitive, random holiday design which may be attached at each end of the package, so as to cross the front thereof at a non-specific angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the bag. The strip is approximately two inches wide and thus does not completely cover the usual, non-holiday printed matter on the approximately five and one-half by nine and one-half inch bag, but may be removed, leaving the bag intact.
Although appropriate for providing information on a thin strip in a random print, repetitive pattern, the Atkinson-type package is not well suited for being provided with a decorative overlay which is broader, or even of the same dimensions as the package front, and particularly when such decorative overlay does not bear a random or repetitive pattern.
The latter type of overlay sheet must be applied to a package surface in registration (precise alignment) therewith. Accurate registration of the overlay and front of a package of the Atkinson form and seal-type is extremely difficult, if not impossible, because the material "web" (source material) for the package per se and that for the decorative strip must be fed from separate "unwind rolls" to a common sealing machine. It is inherent in such packaging processes that the various forces applied throughout cause a certain amount of drag on the material being used to form the bags or other packages. Thus, any materials being fed together will eventually become misaligned, requiring interruption of the process for correction. Therein lies the reason for using merely a random or repetitive design when applying a decorative overlay to the Atkinson-type package.
Accordingly, a need exists for a soft package having a separable decorative overlay (or "fugitive sheet") which may bear a non-repetitive, non-random pattern and so is made part of the package in such manner as to be in registration with a front or back panel thereof and particularly which may be produced in a single web roll process for efficiency of manufacture.
Moreover, unlike the Atkinson-type bag, which is filled and sealed as the bag is formed, there exists a need for a separable package which can be inexpensively mass produced and provided to a wholesaler for filling with the desired goods and subsequent sealing prior to shipping to the retailer.
Other types of packages having separable portions include U.S. Reissue Pat. No. 24,962 to Loderhose, which patent is directed to a cardboard phonograph jacket provided with photographs of a recording artist on the front. The photographs are capable of being peeled off while leaving an intact record jacket therebeneath. The Loderhose paten also discloses rigid multi-walled containers having a front panel with a removable section therein. The removable section is adapted for separating along a perforated tear-line leaving marginal edges adhered as by glue to the multi-walled container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,475 to Beer et al teaches a package for light sensitive materials, the package having multiple light blocking flexible panels, one of which may be peeled away from the others in order to allow access to materials within the package. The panels of the Beer et al package are formed of flexible, light-blocking material made into a complex web-like structure, such as a laminate of a polyester layer, an aluminum foil layer, a nylon layer and a polyethylene layer.
There also exist commonly available cardboard boxes for goods such as facial tissues, the boxes being of a decorative nature and having product or other advertising information printed on a piece of plastic which is glued in part to the outside of the box or glued within a seam joining two portions of the box. This plastic piece can be removed by the customer after purchase to provide a more purely decorative box for use, with no printed information whatever thereon.
There is no prior art relative to a retail package for marketing goods specifically in relation to a certain season or event and having a decorative overlay portion which has been applied in careful registration to the front of the package, which portion may be removed to leave the package intact and allow the continued sale of the goods therein without having to reduce the price after the culmination of the special event or season.
Accordingly, it is among the objects of the present invention to provide a package for retail goods which has a selectively separable portion and a method for producing the package; the separable portion being of a decorative overlay nature for carrying specialty information, as for example, related to a certain holiday or sporting event, and being capable of facile removal from the package as a whole without destroying the useful integrity of the package. The new separable package is intended to be provided with generic or standard product information or advertising on the package proper which may optionally be hidden, entirely or in part, beneath the separable portion so that when that separable or decorative overlay portion is removed, the package is fully functional for containment of the goods without reference to any particular event, holiday, etc.
It is a further object of the present invention having the aforementioned features that the package be of simple, inexpensive construction and be capable of being easily manufactured with conventional automated equipment, as well as being formed after special treatment of the material of the package so that the separable portion may be simply yet properly and quickly removed by an individual having little or no training, while the front and back panels of the soft package remain securely connected to each other.
It is yet another object of the present invention having the features ennumerated that it be amenable to printing by known methods with a variety of messages, such as illustrations relating to specific holidays, in any available colors.
It is still another object of the invention having the above features that the package be capable of production in a number of different shapes, such as square, rectangular, or irregular shapes, and that it may be produced as adapted for hanging from rods (wickets), for filling or display, or for simply stacking on a shelf or table.
It is also among the objects of the present invention having the described features that it be capable of retaining a wide variety of goods, yet be light-weight and either transparent, translucent, or opaque.
Accordingly, in furtherance of the above objects, the present invention is, briefly, a mass-produced package having a separable overlay portion. The package includes a plurality of layered sheets of flexible material having printed information thereon for outward display on the package. Each one of the plurality of layered sheets has an interior surface, and an exterior surface for display of information thereon and a plurality of edges forming a perimeter. At least a portion of the perimeter of each one of the plurality of layered sheets is connected to a corresponding portion of the perimeter of an immediately adjacent layered sheet, and the entire perimeter of one of the plurality of layered sheets is continuously inseparably connected along the entire perimeter of at least one adjacent sheet of the plurality of layered sheets when the package is filled with goods, to thereby provide the package with containment function. An outermost one of the plurality of layered sheets is adapted for quick, facile removal from the remainder of the plurality of layered sheets without disrupting the containment function of the package, thereby altering the information outwardly displayed on the package.
The present invention is also, briefly, a package for containing goods and having an overlay portion which is separable therefrom without disruption of the containment function of the package. The package includes first, second and third flexible sheets each having a plurality of edges and being arranged in registered, layered fashion. The second flexible sheet is layered over the said first flexible sheet and forms the package therewith and the third flexible sheet is layered over the second flexible sheet and forms an overlay portion for the package. Each of the plurality of edges of the second flexible sheet is substantially non-releasably sealed to a corresponding one of the plurality of edges of the first flexible sheet so as to completely seal the package for secure retention of goods contained in the package. At least two of the plurality of edges of the third flexible sheet are releasably sealed to at least two corresponding edges of the plurality of edges of the second flexible sheet, to thereby provide for removal of the third flexible sheet from the package without causing inadvertent separation of the second flexible sheet from the first flexible sheet.
Moreover, the invention is, briefly, a method for manufacturing a package having a separable portion. The method includes:
(a) Providing a web roll of sheet-like flexible material having a first surface and a second surface extending between opposed first and second longitudinal edges, the entire first surface having been pretreated to increase polarity thereof. The second surface has been pretreated to increase polarity only over a strip thereof, the strip having a predetermined width and extending longitudinally along the entire length of the sheet-like flexible material at the second longitudinal edge thereof and extending inward therefrom for a distance substantially equal to the width of the package to be manufactured by the method. The flexible material has been printed in a predetermined pattern on the pretreated first surface thereof.
(b) Forming a first longitudinal fold in the sheet-like flexible material so that a first portion of the untreated area of the second surface faces a second portion of the untreated area of the second surface of the flexible material.
(c) Sealing the flexible material along the first longitudinal fold of step (b) so as to form a continuous non-releasably sealed edge joining two sheets of the flexible material which will become a non-releasably sealed edge on the package to be formed.
(d) Forming a second longitudinal fold in the flexible material in predetermined spaced relation to the first longitudinal fold so that the pretreated strip of the second surface of the flexible material faces in registered, layered fashion a pre-selected, pretreated, printed portion of the first surface of the flexible material adjacent and coextensive with the first longitudinal edge thereof. The second longitudinal edge of the flexible material is substantially parallel to, adjacent to and coextensive with the continuous non-releasably sealed edge formed in step (c).
(e) Making at least one longitudinal cut in the flexible material contiguous with the second longitudinal fold so as to provide an open end on the package opposite the substantially non-releasably sealed edge thereof for permitting filling with goods prior to sealing. And,
(f) making a plurality of successive cuts transversely through and entirely across the longitudinally folded flexible material at equal predetermined intervals thereon in order to separate individual packages from the folded flexible material. Simultaneously, opposed transverse edges are formed on the package in such manner that the opposed transverse edges releasably seal the registered layered, pretreated strip of the flexible material to the pretreated, printed longitudinal portion of the flexible material adjacent thereto. Also simultaneously, the transverse edges of the first and second portions of the untreated second surface of the flexible material which were folded into facing relationship in step (b) are non-releasably sealed together. All of the above being to provide a package having a separable portion which may be removed without destroying the containment function of the package.
Other objects will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinbelow.